TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A cross-country drug investigation that led to arrests at a large private student apartment complex in Tucson involves a claim that suspects distributed large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine. Investigators say associates of the suspects were involved in at least one murder and one fatal overdose.
Hundreds of students live at the private student apartments called the Hub, but court documents say visitors staying there temporarily had phones delivered there as part of drug sales that reached from Washington State to Tucson.
Federal court documents just unsealed say U.S. Postal Inspectors and Drug Enforcement Agents tracked the activities of a group of drug dealers from the Spokane, Washington area, across the U.S. and to Tucson.
The documents list suspects:
Matthew Gudino-Pena, known as “Cheesy”
Hunter Bow O’Mealy
Caleb Ryan Carr
Jamie Bellovich
And an unnamed confidential source
As part of a conspiracy to distribute more than 50 thousand fentanyl pills along with cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD and marijuana.
Court documents say the group advertised drugs on Snapchat.
An overdose death in Idaho put investigators onto the group. There, a high school freshman died of a fentanyl overdose. Investigators say two different suspects, connected to the overdose, and a killing over a drug deal led a confidential source to give up Carr and O’Mealy as source of the drugs used in the overdose.
Court documents describe a variety of drug deals and drug busts in Washington State and claim "Cheesy" Gudino Pena and Hunter O’Mealy shot and seriously wounded a man there who they thought was a snitch.
Documents say agents got search warrants that let them track the suspects phones.
Investigators say phone tracks showed members of the group traveled from Washington State, to North Carolina, and finally to Tucson to the Hub, high rise off-campus student apartments on Tyndall near Speedway.
It’s alleged that the confidential source told members of the group he knew how to make phones invisible to law enforcement but instead gave phones to the DEA which made sure investigators were able to trace the phones.
Agents say those phones were shipped to an address at the Hub. On Wednesday, Postal Inspectors, DEA Agents and U.S Marshals executed a search warrant at the Hub. There they arrested Cheesy Gudino-Pena and Hunter O’Mealy and they say they found and seized several guns.
Other members of the group were arrested at an Arizona hotel.
If the suspects are convicted they could face between ten years and life in prison, plus up to $10 million in fines.
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